


Diamond in the Rough

by hooksdarkswan



Category: Code:Realize ～創世の姫君～ | Code: Realize - Guardian of Rebirth (Visual Novel)
Genre: Adoption, F/M, Family, Infertility, Panic Attacks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-07
Updated: 2018-10-09
Packaged: 2019-07-27 11:17:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16217924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hooksdarkswan/pseuds/hooksdarkswan
Summary: As Lupin vows to give his beloved wife Cardia the family she longs for, he discovers that the best treasures are the ones you don't set out to find.





	1. A New Adventure

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and welcome to Diamond in the Rough! It's been more than a year since I've been able to consistently write anything I could be proud of, but I hope to make that change with this piece :) I don't anticipate making this fic exceptionally long and I am touched you are taking the time to read it. Thank you so much for joining me and the Lupins on this ride!

Paris wore the rich colors of daylight beautifully. The morning sun drenched the landscape in liquid gold, shimmering off windows and sprightly dancing across the lazy waves rippling across the river Seine. Under the beating light, breath filled the lungs of the city, shaking off the stupor of nightfall and beckoning the sleeping from their feathery beds.

The stretching sun rays reached as far as the little green-roofed house on the knoll near the outskirts of town, where a young couple still slumbered. Morning poured through the bedroom window, spilling across Cardia’s lovely features. She sighed and thrashed from its grasp, hiding her face in the safety of her husband’s bare chest. Her sudden movement rustled Sisi out of the crook of her legs, and the dog moved to the foot of the bed good-naturedly.

Lupin’s eyes opened slowly, sleepily, as he drank in the lemon yellow colors of morning. The feeling of his wife pressing into him drew a smile on his lips. His arms encircled her lazily, and he draped his hand between her shoulder blades.

“Good morning, princess.” His smooth voice was still stirring, deep with the sound of night. He worked his fingers slowly across her back, cherishing her soft skin. Lupin could have rocked himself back to sleep as he sank into the feel of her, but the more of Cardia he took in, the more his senses began to spur.

Cardia whispered something that distantly resembled his name, and Lupin laughed and pressed his lips against her cheek. His precious jewel didn’t shine so brightly in the mornings. He planted kisses down the sides of her face, slowly rousing her into consciousness. When he found her soft lips, he claimed her deeply, his tongue testing the part of her mouth.

“ _Arsène_ ,” Cardia gasped awake, granting the sneaky thief the entrance he desired. He laughed confidently, fanning his breath across her glossy lips. His strong arms consumed her and she surrendered to his embrace, sighing and arching as he worked her mouth with skillful kisses. Lupin gradually drifted apart from her, gathering his breath. He smiled down at his beloved with slick lips and a crescent-shaped smile.

“The one and only, _mademoiselle._ Your adoring and devoted husband, the dashing gentleman thief, Arsène Lupin.”

Cardia smiled at his theatrics, and pecked his lips gently.

“ _My_ one and only,” she echoed, and his cocksure smile melted into something far more sincere. “Good morning, my beloved.”

The thief stole a second kiss, smaller, yet more deliberate. Lupin pressed his mouth fully against Cardia’s, mapping the picture perfect-shape of hers. Every kiss between them was another twinkling jewel, a new treasure stashed into the coffers of his heart. There wasn’t a second spent with Cardia that Lupin took for granted. They’d endured for too long, through too much, for him to treat any singular moment carelessly. His lips traced hers tenderly, and he whispered tokens of love into her breath as her body began to wake. Their limbs weaved together until they needed air more than they needed each other, and Lupin nuzzled his wife gently.

“Are you ready for a new adventure?” he asked, his forehead sliding lovingly across the slope of hers.

Cardia peered at Lupin curiously. If there were plans for the day, they were a well-kept secret from her—but then, that wouldn’t be entirely surprising. It was a perk of loving a gentleman thief, after all. Each day was shaped a little differently than the one that came before it.

“Are we going somewhere?” wondered Cardia.

“If you so desire,” he beamed, gathering himself into a seated position. “Every moment with you is an adventure, Madame Lupin.”

“Then _oui_ , Monsieur Lupin, I am ready for a new adventure,” Cardia recited in her best French, curling a deep smile across her husband’s beguiling lips. “I never want to face a day without you in it.”

“Such a day will never come, my Cardia,” said Lupin seriously. “I promise.”

He pulled her into his arms, holding her firmly against him, loving her a while longer. His lips moved in a tender motion, grazing her chocolate curls. Cardia dipped her head and rested under Lupin’s chin, sighing in sweet bliss as he clutched her to his chest for a few more breaths.

When the couple made their way downstairs, the sky was already hanging high in the sky. They kept breakfast light, like the breezy kisses they traded while preparing it. Lupin slid a few pieces of golden toast onto a plate and delivered it to Cardia with a fancy bow. It wasn’t up to Impey’s impressive standards, but the young woman beamed with gratitude as she painted the bread with fresh fruit jam.

As she sewed away the crusts and passed them to Sisi under the table, Lupin badgered her to start eating while he prepared his plate. But Cardia refused, waiting patiently for him. When he slid into his seat in a space set for two, he kissed his wife’s cheek and they shared their morning meal together.

After breakfast, Cardia eagerly gathered the mail. With their merry band splintered around the world, letters were the easiest way to remain in contact with Impey, Fran, Van, and Saint Germain. She returned to the dining table, where Lupin had produced his favorite quill and ink set and was scrawling away at something.

With a quick kiss to his hair as she walked past him, Cardia sank into her place across from Lupin and set out the day’s letters in front of her. Their legs tangled together loosely, a quiet promise that they would never lose each other’s warmth. They glanced up from their work occasionally, trading gentle smiles and loving looks, until Cardia came across a letter written by a familiar hand. She gasped in surprise and held it out for Lupin to see.

“Arsène!” she exclaimed, wagging the letter excitedly. Her husband’s eyebrows stitched up curiously as she continued, “It’s from Van!”

Cardia’s baby pink nails dug under the fanciful wax seal holding the flap together, prying the envelope open. Two tightly-folded pieces of paper fell out, as did a serene photograph depicting a happy new family of three. Her emerald eyes flew to the picture first, of the stone-faced Van Helsing she knew smiling brightly with a purple-eyed infant staring right into the camera. His lovely wife was beside them, wearing a pleasant mingling of a new mother’s exhaustion and pride on her soft features.

“Oh,” Cardia sighed softly, holding out the photo to Lupin. “They had a little boy. Isn’t that wonderful?”

Setting aside his raven quill, a genuine smile flashed across Lupin’s face as he looked upon his old friend’s budding family.

“Sure enough,” he said, turning the photo in his hands and admiring the neat handwriting across the back chronicling the date it was taken. “Good for him. I’m glad he finally found his reason to smile.”

“He looks so different,” said Cardia as Lupin passed the photograph back to her. It wasn’t so long ago that Van’s eyes were concrete and distant. Now, she scarcely recognized them.

The dusk-colored hulls she used to know glittered with something that looked out of place on Van’s serious features. The emotion in his eyes popped off the flat photograph, penetrating Cardia’s chest. On the very day she met  Van, she found solidarity in the empty spaces of his eyes. Now, he had someone who made him warm the way Lupin did her, and a beautiful child—the proof of their love. His soul was cleansed, revolutionized, made new again by the little bald-headed baby set in the crook of his arms.

Seeing Van smiling warmly caused a chain reaction in Cardia. She looked at Lupin and craned her head, wondering if she moved those feelings in her beloved’s body.

Before she could explain it, something inside of her ached and screamed, and the happy warmth radiating from her chest went cold. She didn’t reach for her burned out Horologium, but for her belly, which suddenly seemed empty. A searing heat shot through Cardia, coiling in her gut. For the first time in five long, blissful years, Cardia felt truly empty again—nearly like a monster, a creature masquerading as a human.

 _Am I a real woman?_ Cardia wondered. Perhaps she was just a homunculus after all, a terrible creation whose body could never carry a child. Suddenly, she realized she would never know that look on Lupin’s face, or see the pride shining in his eyes as he basked over the life their love made. She was stealing from a thief, denying him of something that should naturally have been theirs.

And that made Cardia feel truly monstrous.

A dark cloud passed over her face as she began to fret, and Lupin’s teacup banged against the table noisily.

“Are you all right, Cardia?” His handsome features weaved together tightly as he regarded her with concern.

“Of course,” Cardia smiled at her beloved, but he looked right beyond her, just as he always had.

“A good thief always knows when something is hidden from him,” said Lupin, reaching out his hands to clasp hers. He massaged the soft flesh between her thumb and index finger, warming her skin with love. Staring into her shining emerald eyes, he continued, “especially when it comes to his most precious jewel. Please talk to me, princess.”

Cardia shook her head. Her dark curls tossed about her dollish face.

“It’s nothing, Arsène.”

“If something is bothering you, my beloved, it isn’t nothing at all. You were fine moments ago,” Lupin said gravely. He didn’t lift his caramel eyes from Cardia’s face, even as she turned down her head, causing her bangs to cast deep shadows across her delicate features. “Is this because we don’t have a child?”

 _How does he always know?_ Cardia wondered as her lower lip began to bobble. Lupin squeezed her dainty hands and the heat of their joining soothed her churning soul. The words came out easier than she wanted them to.

“It’s just… it’s my fault, Arsène. It’s my fault that we can’t know that feeling. There are parts of me that will never be normal.”

“That’s because you are beyond normalcy, Cardia. You are perfect,” said Lupin. “Is this something you want?

“It doesn’t matter what I want,” Cardia said. “It’s impossible.”

“We don’t know that for sure.” Lupin’s brow creased in thought. His expression lightened suddenly as he suggested, “We could ask her, you know. She couldn’t help us then, but perhaps now…”

Cardia flinched when she recalled the doctor, the woman who confirmed her unbeating heart. Uncomfortable old feelings made Cardia’s stomach give a sick little flop. Her diagnosis then all but confirmed that something in Cardia was broken. Would another doctor’s visit simply reaffirm that?

“Arsène,” she began softly, turning over the thought in her mind. “I don’t know...”

Lupin held her emerald eyes hostage as he spoke.

“This is important to you, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Cardia admitted weakly. She couldn’t deny the dreams that passed through her head at night, of little dark-headed boys and girls wearing mischievous smirks and eyes like topazes. “Yes, of course it is. I want to have a family with you, Arsène. I want to know that feeling. I want… no, I wish for it.”

At once, Lupin’s face changed, the curtain of his determination flapping open wide. One of his hands slipped from where he bundled his fingers together with his wife’s. He snapped his fingers enthusiastically, and the toothy smile that replaced his tight-lipped grimace took Cardia by surprise.

“Ah!” he exclaimed. “So it’s a wish, mademoiselle? Then I, Arsène Lupin, will make your wish come true.”

With his declaration, Lupin dropped from his seat to his knees, causing Sisi to stir and stare at him oddly. He gathered Cardia’s hands and his fingers filled in the spaces between hers, fitting perfectly. He held them across her lap and squeezed them reassuringly.

“Mark my words, Cardia. I swear on my name, I will give a family to you.”

“Arsène,” Cardia whispered hoarsely, “you can’t—”

Lupin moved in the length of a breath, straightening to his full height. He pulled Cardia flushly against him, so when he slipped back into his seat, she ended up sitting on his lap. His arms enveloped her in perfect warmth as he kissed promises through her hair. His hands fell protectively across her middle, causing Cardia to blush lightly.

“I can and I will,” Lupin insisted, his voice as strong as his embrace. When he spoke, his lips swept across the crown of her head. “Besides, my beloved, didn’t I promise you an adventure this morning?”


	2. Believe

“When you said we’d go on an adventure today, this wasn’t quite what I had in mind.”

Cardia’s voice floated dreamily through the cabin as she watched the landscape change through the window. The train ride to Steel London was a familiar one, reminding Cardia of a time long separated from the present. She stared beyond Lupin as the steam-powered engine roared through the countryside, and as Paris fell far behind them, she laid her head in the familiar slope of his shoulder. He spared her chocolate curls a kiss and smiled confidently against the crown of her head. 

“You knew when you married me that I would fill your life with surprises,” said Lupin, lolling his head so hers rested safely beneath his. Sisi was along for the trip—he napped between them now, nearly resembling the child they set out to have. Lupin’s long fingers brushed through the dog’s soft fur while he spoke. 

“It is but one of many of the fantastic benefits of marrying a gentleman thief extraordinaire such as myself.” 

His easy confidence stoked a hearth in Cardia’s belly, and for a small moment she felt warm and sure of the journey ahead of them. But anxiety hanged over her like a persistent squall, and her dark lashes splayed along her cheeks as she squeezed her eyes shut. 

“Are you sure about this, Arsène?”

“Of course I am, Cardia.” He answered her certainly, because he was Arsène Lupin and she was his beloved treasure, and he would steal the stars from the night sky if it meant granting another wish to the beautiful woman sitting beside him. “Why wouldn’t I be?” 

Oh, could Cardia count the reasons! Her lashes lifted the curtain on her glossy emerald eyes and her lips pressed into a tight, thoughtful line. Cardia’s gaze seeked past Lupin’s shoulder, but his perfect topazes recalled her to him. “What if she tells us it’s impossible?” she asked quietly.

Lupin laughed—not to belittle her, never that, but to defy her and the silly worries that filled her lovely head. “And what if she doesn’t?” he challenged her, grinning broadly and nuzzling his cheek against her dark waves. “Cardia, haven’t we redefined ‘impossible?’ Isaac’s poison was meant to keep you from ever touching anyone, but I can do this.” 

He hooked her chin with one of his long, skillful fingers, and tipped her face flush with his. Lupin’s smirking lips brushed against Cardia’s and then slowly devoured hers, his tongue wanting for the taste of his her, his body pleading to join with hers. The gentleman thief proved his love for the poisonous girl in a series of hungry kisses, his heartbeat beginning to hasten as his wife dizzied every one of his senses—and created entirely  _ new  _ ones, Lupin was fairly certain. 

He’d have to ask Fran about that sometime. 

When at last they parted, it was for the need of breath and not the desire for it. Lupin captured Cardia close to him, his gaping lips hanging no more than an inch from hers as he panted. His eyes searched hers, twinkling gold seeking shimmering emerald, and he smiled gently as a girlish, pink blush fanned across his wife’s cheeks. He cupped Cardia’s face in the palm of his hand, his stray fingers rubbing circles along her soft skin.

“The two of us were meant to die on the Nautilus,” Lupin continued while he held her attention captive, “but here we are. Our love has made miracles before; why would this time be different at all?” 

Cardia nodded her head ever-slightly, not yet certain of the promise Lupin made to her but too entranced by his confidence—and his eyes, so eager and shining as they held line with hers—to doubt him. She couldn’t deny the impossibilities they made possible, nor could she begin to number the new ways his love found to awe her every day. The moment Cardia allowed herself to wonder if it could truly be so, if her body could be human enough to carry and grow a life inside, she realized nearly at once that she had never asked Lupin a very important question.

“Arsène, do you even want to be a father?” she wondered.

“Of course I do!” exclaimed Lupin, his smile splayed wide across his handsome face. “I’ve thought about it before, in fact.”

The delicate flush deepened on Cardia’s features, painting her cheeks as red as Impey’s hair. “You have?”   

Lupin nodded in earnest. His hand slipped from Cardia’s reddening face to the back of her neck, where he braced her as he dropped his forehead against her own. 

“I wasn’t sure if it was something you wanted. You see, a true gentleman thief would never pressure a lady by putting her in such a predicament.” 

“I see,” said Cardia with a small smile. Wanting for his body heat, she pulled her arms around his shoulders, closing off what small space remained between them. “After all this time, I guess we’re still discovering new things about each other.” 

“That’s the beauty of true love, isn’t it?” grinned Lupin. He planted a kiss to one corner of Cardia’s mouth, then the other, and as his final act, he stole her sweet-tasting lips. She would argue that he couldn’t steal something that she freely gave to him, but Lupin enjoyed his games as much as Cardia liked being a part of them. She surrendered to his kiss, his name slipping her lips as her arms tightened around his neck, securing their closeness. 

They kissed and embraced while the train pushed forward towards Steel London. The lurching locomotive couldn’t pry them from each other’s arms, nor could Sisi’s yipping as he protested the couple’s sudden lack of interest in anything but each other. Lupin gathered Cardia against his chest, clutching her to his body. They didn’t need words to express the depth of their love, for the way they held each other spoke louder than lungs could scream. He held her strongly, protectively, as he always had and he always would—and he smiled to imagine their child swelling inside of her belly while his loving arms held them both.  

“I hope she has your eyes.” Lupin held his mouth near Cardia’s ear, and he nuzzled her lovingly as the wish floated off his lips. 

“And what if  _ he  _ has  _ yours _ ?” Cardia wondered. 

She could envision him perfectly: a precocious little boy with a head of dark, messy hair and gold eyes full of mischief, his toothy grin stealing her heart over and over again, just the way his father promised to always do. Cardia would clutch him to her body, his little head nestled against the sparkling jewels inlaid within her chest, and sing to him until he found rest in his mother’s embrace.  

She shook her head furiously, and just like that, he was gone.

“I shouldn’t let myself think that way,” Cardia said softly, turning her face from her husband’s.

“Yes, you should. Believe in yourself the way you do everyone else, princess,” said Lupin, his nimble hands framing her face between them. “Believe in us. Believe in the sons and the daughters we will have together. Do you think so little of a gentleman thief, to question the vow he gives to his beloved? I swore to give you a family, Cardia and a family you will have.” 

“Arsène…” His name lifted from her lips like a prayer. She wanted to believe him, to cling to the resolve in his voice and know it to be as true as he made it sound. Cardia gave Lupin a thin-lipped smile. Her dainty hands reached up to grasp his wrists. “How long have you wanted this?”

Lupin beamed at her, but it wasn’t one of those ridiculous, overconfident smiles he was so well known for. His expression was serene, yet crazed with affection. His lips pulled into a glowing crescent that radiated love for the woman in his arms. 

“For as long as I’ve been in love with you,” he said. Giving her fingers a gentle squeeze, he leaned forward and kissed Cardia softly. “I never pictured myself as a father until I found the one woman who made me want to be a husband.” 

The familiar rosy hue returned to Cardia’s cheeks. She turned her head in Lupin’s hands, kissing each of his palms. “You would be a wonderful father, Arsène.”

“And you, my beloved,  _ will  _ be a perfect mother,” said Lupin. He rested his chin atop her head, her soft curls making a bed for his cheek as he nuzzled her reassuringly. “Our children will never know anything but love.”

“That,” agreed Cardia, “I can believe in.” 


End file.
